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"Since I was a child, I have always loved drawing.
As an architect, I was trained to sketch on site in my first year of my studies. I have always considered sketching a wonderful tool in my job to understand things, more in the field of spatial relations than in their material aspect.
On the other hand, I have always brought a sketchbook with me in my travels as a much more effective way of keeping a memory than a photograph. But lately my travel sketches tended to be too few and too quick.
I have recently found Urban Sketchers, and then discovered the immense joy of sketching outside with no particular task. Reading Usk’s manifesto, I feel especially sensitive with the point of keeping a record of time and place, and I’m changing from sketching just architecture to understand the city as a big scenario for human activity.
I live in Málaga, a city in the south of Spain with more than half a million residents and 2,500 years of age; but also the center of a busy and lively metropolitan area, home of an active harbour and a big tourist destination. Now that I have two small children and I do not travel as much as before, I’m trying to show this mixture of old and new in my drawings. It is so rewarding to share my work with so many excellent artists and receive continuous feedback from other members! And, last but not least, to learn from other parts of the world.
I'm delighted to join Urban Sketchers."
• Luis' art on flickr.

Drawing Attention - Dec. 2015

Urban Sketchers Events and Workshops

Manchester Symposium Update: We have the location (Manchester, England) and the dates (July 27 - 30, 2016), and now we need programming! Please see the Call for Programming for more information. The deadline for submissions is Dec. 21.

News from Urban Sketchers Communities

Welcome, Urban Sketchers Charleston!

Urban Sketchers Charleston (USA) is excited to announce its recent acceptance as part of the Urban Sketchers community. "We had a recent sketch outing on a brisk and breezy Sunday," said Anne Weld. "Eight folks took a break from Thanksgiving prep and braved the chilly wind to sketch the downtown streets." The group has a blog and is on Facebook.

USk Munich (Germany) was featured on German television in November in a five-minute video program. The Bavarian channel BR came along with sketchers to their November meetup for the coverage.

Sergio Garzon sketches a glass art studio with USk Oahu.

At the invitation of Glass Arts Association of Hawai'i, Urban Sketchers O'ahu (USA) attended the glass artists' open house. "Sketchers captured live glass shaping and blowing while keeping a safe distance from the blazing furnaces and red-hot globs of glass," said Sebastian Sievert.

The October edition of Lisboa magazine featured an article about Urban Sketchers, including a cover sketch by Pedro Alves.USk Chile held its second annual Urban Sketchers Chile meeting at Casa de la ciudadanía Montecarmelo. Three workshops were offered by Sergio Barquin, Ricardo Martinez and Rosario Muñoz. The event concluded with an exhibition at the cultural center, Rosario said. "Also we uploaded some sketches (those about the neighborhood) to our Facebook page. The one that got the most likes won a bag with art materials, courtesy of our sponsor Color Animal." Drawings of the cultural center's building remained on exhibit for several days.

Urban Sketchers Chile at its second annual meeting.

Urban Sketchers Toronto (Canada) will have its first show in collaboration with Areej Art Gallery Dec. 5 - 19. An opening reception is planned for Dec. 5.Urban Sketchers London has a show by more than 20 artists in the newly opened Timberyard Soho cafe through April 2016. During the cafe's launch month, USk London is also organizing a sketchcrawl and book event. A drawing by James Hobbs is featured on 50,000 of the cafe's coffee cups.

Sketchers in Action

Mario Linhares (Portugal) has an exhibition of 50 sketches of Lisbon made for a new book by Fernando Pessoa. In a Google translation of Mario's announcement, he said, "It took me a year to do all the drawings; I have many curious stories to tell about them." A show opening was held Nov. 27.

Cathy McAuliffe's sketch of a Veteran's Day parade

Cathy McAuliffe of the San Francisco Bay Area (USA) sketched at an annual parade honoring veterans Nov. 11 in Petaluma. The parade includes "veterans both young and old, high school marching band, horses, vintage vehicles, fly overs and lots of community support," Cathy said. "It all takes place under beautiful fall trees lining the streets."

Fort Worth (USA) professor, designer and urban sketcher James Richards’ new Craftsy class, “Essential Techniques for Sketching the Energy of Places,” has been released. The two-hour online course delves into Jim’s techniques for capturing the buzz of lively streets and plazas on-location. “We cover techniques for quickly capturing people, buildings and street life in ways that go beyond rendering to capture the spirit of the place.” Urban sketchers will receive a $10 discount by registering through Jim’s website.

Jim Richards leads a sketch outing and workshop in Nairobi.

In other news, Jim recently gave a keynote address and drawing workshop and led an on-location urban sketching outing in Nairobi, Kenya, at a conference of the International Federation of Landscape Architects. The events were attended by design students and faculty from Jomo Kenyetta University, as well as conference attendees from across Africa, most of whom had never experienced group sketching on-location before. Busy Jim also recently gave workshops at Mississippi State University and Kansas State University, and a “Sketch Chicago” outing and exhibition at the national conference of the American Society of Landscape Architects in Chicago, which he led with longtime collaborator and urban sketcher Richard Alomar.

Hugo Costa (Spain) will be teaching at the Parsons New School in New York City (USA) as a researcher and visiting scholar, lecturing on urban sketching and architectural representation. "Although I teach in Spain," Hugo said, "I earned a four-month grant for researching on graphic expression/urban sketching and also will be producing a graphic diary of NYC's urban atmosphere."